The demon is dead, for now
Posted on April 30, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized
For some time now, as many of you know, I have been seeking a significant change in my job. (Unfortunately, I can’t really change jobs per se, not like going from being a baker to a candle stick maker, but I can go from being a baker to a supplier of baking equipment.) I go to work every single day and feel I am literally wasting my life, watching time go by and feeling no return from the investment I make each day. I lack a sense of personal fulfillment. One of the few things about being here that keeps me from just completely sinking (outside of family, friends, and sheer determination to keep going) is just that, being here. WNC is such an incredible area, so rich with activities, culture, tradition, and an ethos which agrees with us. The thought of leaving here made both Erin and I heartsick but given the aforementioned, I knew I had to do something.
So, about a year ago, I said, ‘To heck with this!’ and began looking into a teaching job for which I am qualified. There are many locations around the world one can do this job, from Italy to Arizona to Japan to Virginia. Given that availability, I wasn’t going to apply for a position at a place I knew I wouldn’t be happy. Obviously, Erin’s preferences had a lot to do with it as well. Right off the top, we eliminated any outside the country, in deference to the relationship she enjoys with her parents. And then Maggie (in utero) came along and kind of placed everything on hold. We wanted to have our feet at least a little firmly planted before moving wherever with an infant. We waited for one of these positions to come open with a reporting date and a location that felt right. And, then, just like that, in Feb. Mountain Home, Idaho popped up. I jokingly asked Erin what she thought about it. After the levity died down, we found ourselves seriously thinking about it. Once we decided to apply, I set about preparing the application package.
Now, as with most jobs, there was an application deadline. And anyone who knows me knows I am not the best with deadlines. One of my most significant demons is procrastination; it has followed me all my life and probably has a significant amount to do with the shape my life has taken thus far. But, at some point, I decided I wasn’t going to allow it to shape this.
The package is not exactly easy to put together. It involves a number of documents and tons of information which must all be presented in the most professional of formats. (In fact, I needed to drive eight hours just to get one piece of paper which said a particular thing about me.) Then I found out that the package as I understood was not the entire thing, that there was more. Nevertheless, I met the deadline and did so with a finished product which won me a phone interview. The fact that I did this, that I got this thing in on time and correctly is so simple and yet is one of the things I am most proud of in recent memory. Some of you might not know how significant this is for me, but it is important for me to scream from the mountain tops, I DID IT!!!
So anyway, the phone interview came and I was very nervous. Turns out, I did pretty well. A couple weeks later on a Wednesday (which happens to have been this past Wednesday), I was working on a project away from my desk on a different floor of my building and received a phone call from my supervisor. He told me to come upstairs and call the woman to whom I had sent my package. I did so and she said to me, “Guess what?” I said, “What?” and she said, “Pack your bags!” Obviously, I was more than thrilled and lied to Erin over the phone so that she would come to my work (she was already in town shopping) so I could tell her face to face. She was very happy and very proud of me (more about this in another post).
The details of the job would probably bore most of you but basically, it is being an instructor for a class that teaches young people how to be effective supervisors. It is a very important milestone in most peoples’ careers and something from which they hopefully learn a great deal. The course last approximately six weeks. Generally speaking, it is a move from computers being my business to people being my focus, which is the most significant thing about it. A job like that is what I want, whether now or in 40 years. Yes, it’s all the way across the country and that will mean some serious adjustments not only for us but also for our families, who have grown accustomed to us being on or near the East Coast for the last 30 or 32 years. That notwithstanding, this is the right thing for Erin and I to do at this point, of that much I am convinced.
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its great you got the job. Outside of the fact we will miss everyone so much. it very far away, not as far as Italy.
The few, the proud… (Somehow I felt it was appropriate).
Mountain Home, huh? If memory serves, it should be a good fit for you, with the sprout/tofu type person you are. Yeah, I can see it now, a rustic, wooden “cottage†with a dirt/gravel driveway. I see little Maggie running out of the house wearing a dress (which Erin made) running barefoot through the all-natural back yard chasing chickens, which, of course, are for pets, not eating, although you do grow what you eat. You’ll ground you wheat into flour to make bread. A neighbor (a mile away) allows you to milk their cow Bessie once a week to make butter. In barter, you take your 2 pet goats down to his house, once a week, to mow his grass. You abandon anything industrial/big corporation. Because of your support to the University of Idaho and their solar research, you are not only allowed to test their new solar powered vehicle, but ultimately only have to pay a nominal fee to retain the vehicle after the study concludes. The story can (and probably will) go on for a long time. Yes, it’s a good life, one that is away from the hustle and bustle and overcrowded East Coast.
Please take this as it was intended, good-natured humor.
All the best to you all.
Tim